UP STF nabs Delhi gang that duped banks of Rs 10 crore using KYC info

With the arrest of three men from Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday claimed to have busted a gang involved in defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 10 crore after obtaining credit cards using fake documents.

The gang, which was active in Delhi NCR and had illegally obtained KYC (Know Your Customer) information like Aadhaar and PAN card details of several individuals, was held on Saturday night by Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police, officials said.

A case was registered at Noida's Sector 24 police station in the first week of March in which the complainant said his KYC, which he never gave, was used for issuing a credit card from the SBI.

The Noida unit of the STF was handed over the probe as several other similar complaints involving various banks came to the fore, agency's Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Mishra said.

"Probing the case, the Noida field unit of the STF tracked down the gang in Delhi and Saturday called a lead suspect for questioning at the STF office in Greater Noida. Based on credible evidence of his involvement, he was arrested and later his two gang-members picked up from Delhi," Mishra said.

The accused have been identified as gang's mastermind Bhupendra Soni, from Uttam Nagar, and his associates Teerath Rathore (42), from Mangolpuri, and Chandra Prakash (40), from Rohini, he said.

The officer said that a raid at the gang's workplace led to the recovery of 23 credit cards, 13 debit cards of various banks, nine mobile phones, over 50 credit card application forms (blank) of various banks, personal details like Aadhaar and PAN of several individuals, photocopies of multiple credit cards, among others.

Soni, a Class 8 pass, told interrogators that they would obtain personal details of individuals from private vendors associated with various telecom companies and banks for collecting customers' KYC details in exchange for money, the officer said.

The gang would then use this detail along with photoshopped documents to get credit cards issued from banks and had partnered with some vendors for using their EOD-POS (end of day point of sale) machines for making transactions, he said.

"The vendors who partnered them would get a commission of at least 2 per cent excluding the GST and other taxes as applicable after swiping credit cards. Once the card would reach its limit, the accused would break and dump it," Mishra said.

The DSP said, "The gang has been active for about three years during which they have duped banks to the tune of more than Rs 10 crore with this modus operandi."